MEDIA COURTHOUSE — A Delaware man arrested in August after shooting at the Middletown home of a woman he once professed to have loved pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts each of discharge of a firearm into an occupied structure and possessing an instrument of crime.

Sentencing for David F. Saddler has been deferred until Jan. 21 at the request of Assistant District Attorney Katie Magee. Judge Michael F.X. Coll indicated that restitution is being determined and that the date could be moved up.

Saddler, 58, of Wynwood Road in Wilmington, was wanted for several shooting incidents in the county, including the May 5 incident in the lead case.

According to an affidavit of probable cause, Saddler and the victim in that incident knew each other in the 1970s, when they attended different Delaware County high schools.

They were friends, but Saddler professed his love for the woman and was rebuffed. Saddler cropped up in the victim’s life several more times over the years, including an incident in the late 1970s when she received a disturbing call from him shortly before he showed up at her apartment banging on the door and demanding to be let in.

He had also tried to contact her about five years ago on the Internet reunion site classmates.com. After receiving word form Saddler, the woman closed her account, according to the affidavit.

Then on May 5 of this year, state police were called to the victim’s home on the 200 block of Mount Alverno Road for reports of a firearm being discharged twice at about 3:20 a.m. One of the rounds entered the home, though no one was injured. Three shell casings were found at the scene.

Three hours later, a similar incident occurred at the Bryn Mawr Trust Bank on Baltimore Pike in Chester Heights, where surveillance cameras captured a red sedan bearing Pennsylvania tags going the wrong way through the drive-through. A multi-state investigation was launched after additional reports of shots fired came in from Bethel and Delaware State.

Saddler was arrested on August 4 after slowly driving a red 2009 Hyundai Electra with Delaware tags on the shoulder of northbound I-495. A loaded shotgun and rifle were found under a blanket on the front seat. He was matched to a description of a suspect in a surveillance photograph.

A subsequent search warrant executed at his home by Delaware State Police uncovered an additional shotgun and numerous handguns stashed in a cooler in the basement. Police also recovered a Pennsylvania license plate and a newspaper article about the Delaware shootings.

A firearms examiner with the Pennsylvania State Police was able to positively match the casings taken from the Mount Alverno driveway to one of the handguns.

Under the negotiated plea agreements worked out with defense attorney Albert M. Greto, Magee is recommending a sentence of five to 10 years for each of the three cases, which would run concurrently.

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About the Author

Alex Rose covers court proceedings for the Daily Times. He also writes a weekly science column. Reach the author at arose@delcotimes.com
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